“You don’t remember anything that happened after that?” His face tilted toward me, but it wasn’t unfriendly. We were on dry land now, and I instinctively dug my numb toes into the sand,soaking up the stored heat. Slowly, my feet dried off and a mild warmth flowed up through my body, aiding my temperature’s recovery. I was hyper focused on my extremities, making sure I could feel each one, when Jasper’s voice cut off my thoughts.
“Do you remember meeting me on the docks?” he pressed, his voice holding more urgency.
I studied his face. He was handsome, in a ruggedly mysterious way, with dark hair and complementary dark eyes. The way he looked back at me, with his eyes burning into mine, made me further suspect he was still hiding something.
Maybe he really is dangerous?
I wasn’t sure what to say, because I wanted to get more information out of him before I confessed to what I did know. I surely didn’t want him to suspect I knew who he was. I weighed my options on how to proceed, until I remembered a low budget film I had done in high school where the main character had amnesia. It seemed like a silly trope, but it ended up being the perfect tool for the main character to play dumb. Since I was going for clueless, I leaned on that role, “Oh, eggs and bacon!” I screamed out as my hand fled over my mouth. “I don’t remember you, but I totally played this role in a movie once and I know who you are!”
“Err . . . the guy you—”
“Married!” I cut him off because I wanted to make my act as believable as I could. I rushed to explain everything to set him up. “I totally must have amnesia, and I forgot you are my husband!” In my effort to convince him, I grabbed his hand and gave it a hearty squeeze. “It’s going to be okay because I was in a movie once with thisverysame plot, and I know exactly what to do to get my memory back.”
“Err, what?” He glared at me like I had lost my marbles.
“It’s okay.” I squeezed his hand again, feeling him stiffen at my touch. This whole act would only work if I did everything I couldto make him think I was a ditz who wholeheartedly believed this. “I’m going to get my memories back, and trust me, this all ends so amazingly well.” To reassure him, I squeezed my face into a sweet smile, but inside I was dying more than a little.
He lowered his brow, and now it looked more like a creepy caterpillar sitting on his face. I learned in my acting classes that meant he needed some convincing, so I didn’t hold back. “You must remind me of all of the amazing things we used to do together, like how we fell in love. It’s going to be tough, but just when we think it’s no use, I’m going to get a tiny glimpse of something that sparks a memory, and then they all come rushing back from there.”
He took a step back, releasing the hold I had on him, and yelled, “Evie, are you nuts?”
“No!” I snapped back. I assumed it was going to be difficult to convince him I had amnesia, but I hadn’t planned on it being this hard. I was not giving up and I shouted back, “I’m not nuts, but I have no memory. Remember? I have Am-ne-sia!” I stretched the word amnesia as if I was talking to a ninety-year-old-deaf person. “Plus—"
“You don’t have amnesia!” He cut me off, sounding a bit disgusted. If I had to be honest, I found this assertive thing he had going on to be very attractive. He grabbed both of my hands. “Listen, Evie,” he squared his face with mine.“We met on the docks, and you hired me to pilot your yacht—”
“Of course, we did!” I carried on my impromptu act. “I’ve always loved a good falling-for-the-boss plot. I can’t believe I get to be part of one in real life.” I flashed my eyes heavenward like I was full of the swoons and couldn’t wait to remember the rest of our love story.
He let out a noise that sounded a tad animal-like. I’ll admit it was a bit off-putting, but I totally understood how hard this must be for him—or maybe that was just his hangry sound? I reachedout, brushing the back of my hand against his cheek, hoping my touch would be reassuring to him. “It’s okay, babe. We don’t need to hash out all the details now. This is the part of the plot where we settle into life as we now know it.”
I’ll admit the scowl he gave me wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I didn’t take it personally. “Come on.” I motioned with my head toward further up the beach. “Let’s go find someplace to rest for the night, and we can chat about it in the morning.” I smiled sweetly at him, hoping he was convinced I had lost my memory.
“Rest?” He went stone faced. “We don’t even know if this island is safe. I don’t think we should fall asleep without securing a campsite.”
“It’s okay.” I waved his concern away as I headed up the beach. “There’s always a little cave we can claim back here next to the rocks and trees. To find it, we must walk true north.”
“Are you insane!” His jaw dropped so low his mouth looked like a giant cave with toothy stalagmites.
Easing into the brush, I tiptoed over the now pebbled terrain, careful of my surroundings as I walked toward the glade of trees. There had to be something up with this island because just like in my recent movie, I found the cave exactly where I knew it would be. Even though, I had pretended it was going to be there, the fact I found a cave sent a trickle of goosebumps along my spine. That was too co-inky dinky for me to feel calm about, but I couldn’t let him see my hesitation, or it would blow my cover. I pushed forward. “See!” I called back as I pulled aside a concealing branch. “Here’s the cave and if we are lucky, it should already have a place for a campfire.”
The screech he emitted was a little much. In Hollywood we called that overacting.
“It’s fine, honey.” I headed into the cave while still finessing him to trust me. I called back, “Everything is going to work outjust fine.” Only now, I wasn’t so convinced, as a chill ran through my body, warning me to stay alert.
four
Jasper
“Casper, sweetie.” Evie returned to the cave with a bushel of dried leaves in her arms, dropping them in the fire pit, not even hinting she was the least bit surprised at the events rolling out before us. I was beginning to think she was a magical genie because nothing was adding up. Although she was the one with a brain injury, I was pretty sure I’d gone bat-poop crazy.
“It’s Jasper. Jasper Knight.” I didn’t even look her way because I was busy untying my satchel from around my waist, where I had managed to wrap it before the impact of the first wave. My stomach felt like it was in my throat as I opened the flap and unzipped it. Thankfully, my precious map was still safe. Tucking it back down to the bottom, not daring to let it out of my sight, I focused my attention back on her mumbling.
“Ah!” Clasping her hands in front of her, she let out a satisfied sigh. “I love the way that sounds. So, did I take your last name, or did I hyphenate?”
The frustration pounding in my brain was exploding, but I couldn’t convince her that she was wrong about us. The more I tried to explain it, the more she threw plot lines at me. She was seriously cuckoo. I decided instead of arguing with her, the better plan would be to play along until we found our way off this island, and I could ditch her. “Um, you kept your name,” I murmured, fighting the urge to argue again.
“Right.” She nodded, like she recalled this memorythat didn’t happen. “Of course, my career. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with my celebrity brand.”
Still unsure how far to take this, I finally managed to say, “Exactly that,” while I distracted myself by piling up the branches in the pit. I wasn’t even going to ask where we would find fire, but I sat down next to the pit, not doubting it would happen.
